FX commission 3v

KC JONES

I was charged an FX commission on a 3v payment to the UK. I have not seen that before. Is it on every order? Do 3v get it

jor el

All banks and credit cards charge commission on foreign exchanges.

KC JONES

jor el wrote: »

All banks and credit cards charge commission on foreign exchanges.

I never had it before with 3v. I looked back through old purchases and there is no money taken only what i paid mostly to uk sites. Is uk a foreign exchange?

Paid sterling today but think their head office is in US. That be why? Thanks

jor el

KC JONES wrote: »

Is uk a foreign exchange?

£ Vs €, different currency requires exchange.

KC JONES

jor el wrote: »

£ Vs €, different currency requires exchange.

Strange i was never charged before and was not charged on a purchase i made after posting this

jor el

Was it 3V or the website that charged you a commission? Where did you see it itemised?

KC JONES

jor el wrote: »

Was it 3V or the website that charged you a commission? Where did you see it itemised?

on my 3v online statement

Red Sleeping Beauty

No you were charged it before and so was I and everyone else.

There was some new law or directive or some crap that came in that forced 3V to show this charge whereas before they didn't and you just got charged it anyways! It's an absolute pain in the hole.

Apparently as per Visa's rule you get charged 1.75% on a currency exchange.

So when you're doing your conversion add on 1.75%. I've been stung this week cause I'm shy about 5pence for a DVD. Pile of **** but no other option really - nowhere accepts Laser, Credit card's not an option and the other prepay cards are worse with insanely confusing fees.

KC JONES

Thanks for the reply

Alan Rouge wrote: »

No you were charged it before and so was I and everyone else.

There was some new law or directive or some crap that came in that forced 3V to show this charge whereas before they didn't and you just got charged it anyways! It's an absolute pain in the hole.

Apparently as per Visa's rule you get charged 1.75% on a currency exchange.

So when you're doing your conversion add on 1.75%. I've been stung this week cause I'm shy about 5pence for a DVD. Pile of **** but no other option really - nowhere accepts Laser, Credit card's not an option and the other prepay cards are worse with insanely confusing fees.

OK. But on my last order the price was exactly the amount left on the voucher. Does that mean I will not get it? It says it is an incomplete transaction. Also there is a few cent left today when i used all the credit yesterday?

I note also that 3v say a purchase should not use all the credit to allow for the FX and so avoid negative balance.I always try to get something that uses all the balance because I do not want to leave any money on the voucher i.e to 3v

It is a joke with the 2.50 fee to transfer say 3.00 euro

nitromaster

I somehow ended up with a negative value on a voucher due to this fx charge?
Date - Intial Balance - Current Balance - Voucher Status
02/11 - €260 - €-0.78 - ACTIVE

It doesn't affect me because both orders have been shipped...but how does it end up with a minus figure on the voucher? :pac:

KC JONES

nitromaster wrote: »

I somehow ended up with a negative value on a voucher due to this fx charge?
Date - Intial Balance - Current Balance - Voucher Status
02/11 - €260 - €-0.78 - ACTIVE

It doesn't affect me because both orders have been shipped...but how does it end up with a minus figure on the voucher? :pac:

I think you can end up with a negative balance if your goods are shipped but they have not yet deducted the fx. Negative balance should be sent to 3v according to the following 3v site quote

From 3v site Can my 3V Voucher ever have a negative balance?


Any authorisation request that is greater than the 3V Voucher's available balance will be declined. However, there can be times when a retailer puts an item through without prior authorisation. If an overdraft occurs, you will be required to make a payment to cardholder services to cover the negative amount. Payments should be sent to:

3V Transaction Services Ltd.
P.O. Box 9835, Dublin 1

Red Sleeping Beauty

KC JONES wrote: »

I think you can end up with a negative balance if your goods are shipped but they have not yet deducted the fx. Negative balance should be sent to 3v according to the following 3v site quote

nitromaster wrote: »

I somehow ended up with a negative value on a voucher due to this fx charge?
Date - Intial Balance - Current Balance - Voucher Status
02/11 - €260 - €-0.78 - ACTIVE

It doesn't affect me because both orders have been shipped...but how does it end up with a minus figure on the voucher? :pac:

I wonder would they block your account or automatically deduct or charge your next voucher to get their money?

KC JONES wrote: »

Thanks for the replyOK. But on my last order the price was exactly the amount left on the voucher. Does that mean I will not get it? It says it is an incomplete transaction. Also there is a few cent left today when i used all the credit yesterday?

I note also that 3v say a purchase should not use all the credit to allow for the FX and so avoid negative balance.I always try to get something that uses all the balance because I do not want to leave any money on the voucher i.e to 3v

It is a joke with the 2.50 fee to transfer say 3.00 euro

I'm assuming it's a payment other than Euro? If so then 3V (well, Visa) have their own exchange rate which isn't the same as the one on Xe.com and then they also charge you the 1.75%. It's a pain int he bloody hole and 3V shouldn't be advertising that you can use it with paypal and ebay because it's so complicated. Their site does a shite job and explaining the pitfalls but they at least have the 1.75% commission included int he "fees" table though.

I don't know what the neg balance is or how you rectify it. It's possible if you're trying to spend as close to the balance as possible of the 3V voucher that you might then end up owing them a few pence but what do they want you to do? Send a cheque for < €1?!

The tranfer fee's another pain in the hole with trying to use up remaining funds. If you've less than 2.50 left on the card then it's basically useless to you (remember, online sites charge a pre-authorisation fee but it takes weeks for this to be reimbursed to your balance).

LifeAndFate

There is no new FX charge for 3V Vouchers. Changes to the EU directive on e-Money that came into force on 01 November means that all credit card companies have to display any commission charged seperately to the cost of the transaction itself.

Visa credit cards (which is effectively what 3V Vouchers are) use the Visa exchange rate, which changes from day to day. So a transaction for £10 that is authorised by Visa as a transaction for €12 on 01 January, may settle on a few days later for €12.25.

Pre-authorisation transactions for 3V Vouchers (the transactions site use to verify the credit card details) are reversed automatically after 7 to 10 days.:)

KC JONES

My latest order is reading despatched though 3v has it as incomplete transaction. Few cents left on it, don't know how because i bought up to the cent the balance that was left.

Maybe there should be a 'strike' a week when no one buys a 3v voucher, due to 'the downturn in the economy'.....They might drop the €2.50 to reclaim €2.60 then

KC JONES

Alan Rouge wrote: »

I wonder would they block your account or automatically deduct or charge your next voucher to get their money?

Heard from someone who had a negative balance of 25 cents and 3v paid it and said they would not request it as it is so small.
They advise not ordering too close to the voucher balance to allow for fx.I hate leaving them anything at all as it is a rip off when you have money left and not worth transferring cos of fee. Let 'em pay all the fx's as far as i am concerned!

I wonder is it in breach of any consumer law to have to leave money for the fx when no one knows when it will be taken and what the amount/rate will be? They probably have it covered.

Red Sleeping Beauty

KC JONES wrote: »

rned!

I wonder is it in breach of any consumer law to have to leave money for the fx when no one knows when it will be taken and what the amount/rate will be? They probably have it covered.

They must make a cushy little number from unused funds that expire...

KC JONES

Alan Rouge wrote: »

They must make a cushy little number from unused funds that expire...

That is what I mean, can they do it

Red Sleeping Beauty

I have no idea but I'd love to find out. At a guess I'd say yes they can do it. They offer you a service of a middleman, they sell you a disposable Visa credit card number on a voucher and the rules are quite clear - it expires on XX/XX and it costs €X to redeem the funds and you can add funds from new(er) vouchers to existing cards. So there are options there to use up the cash but of course it's not practical. You're always left with that few quid and they must be pocketing it.

I don't know if this is similar but apparently Dublin Bus have a few million worth of refunds not collected and they're not allowed touch it. I somehow doubt it's the same for 3V but I'd like to know from some experts. I've contemplated ringing the CAI but I'd say they'd either give me the runaround or play dead.

slickal

i was charged yesterday 22 cent on this fx commission thing but today i checked it out and it was 88 cent now.

Red Sleeping Beauty

How many transactions are there?

If there's a transaction for something you paid for and then two seperate FX Commission charges then that sounds a bit fishy...

The Lovely Muffin

Just made a purchase online and the total I paid £30.45 GBP and in euros (on my 3v online account) it's €33.87.

I wanted to get something else from the same site for £1.50 (meaning my total would have been £31.95 GBP) and it was declined. I was charged 46 cents in fx commission and have €2.10 left on the voucher.

I'm seriously pissed off that I couldn't get the item for £1.50 yet I still have €2.10 left to use.

On three of my vouchers, I still have €4.08 left to use, and to put them on one voucher, it would cost me €5.00 (€2.50 for each voucher transfer).

I am seriously thinking of asking the bank about those Visa youth card (like normal visa, except it's prepaid, and any money left on the card (from each transaction), it's left there for other transactions, whereas with 3v, if the funds on each voucher aren't used up, 3v pocket them.

KC JONES

-Orlaith- wrote: »

I am seriously thinking of asking the bank about those Visa youth card

Is this available to all ages or just youth?

with 3v, if the funds on each voucher aren't used up, 3v pocket them.

Needs to be run by consumer people

jor el

KC JONES wrote: »

Needs to be run by consumer people

Not really. If you don't spend it, transfer it, or withdraw it, then 3V keep whatever is left when the voucher expires.

The Lovely Muffin

KC JONES wrote: »

Is this available to all ages or just youth?

16+ I think.

More info about them here

http://www.visaeurope.com/personal/youthprepaid/prepaid.jsp

jor el wrote: »

Not really. If you don't spend it, transfer it, or withdraw it, then 3V keep whatever is left when the voucher expires.

That's just it - if I did transfer it, I'd end up loosing money.

3V's fee's are an absolute joke. Fair enough, they have to make a profit, but €2.50 for a voucher to voucher transfer? And €5.00 for a voucher to bank account transfer?:eek:

The fee's never bothered me before, but when I added my unused funds up and realised how much I had left, I soon realised.

The fee's are absolutely disgraceful.

KC JONES

jor el wrote: »

Not really. If you don't spend it, transfer it, or withdraw it, then 3V keep whatever is left when the voucher expires.

Why should they keep funds that they make impossible to spend/transfer. If someone pays 20 euro for a 3v why should 3v be allowed to keep some of it? They are a joke and a rip off

KC JONES

KC JONES wrote: »

Why should they keep funds that they make impossible to spend/transfer. If someone pays 20 euro for a 3v why should 3v be allowed to keep some of it? They are a joke and a rip off

I always used to donate the last few euro to a charity just to frustrate 3V. SVP was good but they changed their donation page from a simple one to one that looked for every detail about you under the sun just to give them money. :rolleyes:

KC JONES

Deleted User wrote: »

I always used to donate the last few euro to a charity just to frustrate 3V. SVP was good but they changed their donation page from a simple one to one that looked for every detail about you under the sun just to give them money. :rolleyes:

some charity I tried would not take less than, I think it was, 10 euro. I would be happy if one could pick a charity and 3v pass on any few cents left at no fee to anyone. Hate leaving them any;) rather go into negative balance and see them come after me for it. I would charge them 2.50 to process their claim;)

KC JONES

KC JONES wrote: »

some charity i tried would not take less than i think it was 10 euro. i would be happy if one could pick a charity and 3v pass on any few cents left at no fee to anyone. Hate leaving them any;) raher go into negative balance and see them come after me for it. i would charge them 2.50 to process their claim;)

Try svp.ie then. They used to take any amount from me but it's been a while since I donated I'm ashamed to say. But as I posted there's a small bit of form filling involved.

Red Sleeping Beauty

-Orlaith- wrote: »

16+ I think.

More info about them here

http://www.visaeurope.com/personal/youthprepaid/prepaid.jsp

That's just it - if I did transfer it, I'd end up loosing money.

3V's fee's are an absolute joke. Fair enough, they have to make a profit, but €2.50 for a voucher to voucher transfer? And €5.00 for a voucher to bank account transfer?:eek:

The fee's never bothered me before, but when I added my unused funds up and realised how much I had left, I soon realised.

The fee's are absolutely disgraceful.

The fees are a joke and they're shite but I think I'd take them over the incrimental fees from something like the Mastercard thing.

It used to be the case that any voucher up 10 €100 was €2.50 and anything over that changed to a fiver. Now the 20quid ones are "free" and it's €2.50 for 30-100.

There's no doubt that they figure into their sums pocketing a few stray euros here and there that people won't be able to use.

KC JONES wrote: »

Why should they keep funds that they make impossible to spend/transfer. If someone pays 20 euro for a 3v why should 3v be allowed to keep some of it? They are a joke and a rip off

They shouldn't keep the funds but until someone forces their hand to open a customer cash desk where you can go in and get your refund in coins then this is the way it'll be much to my chagrin .

Amalgam

The following was in an email sent by 3V today:

Foreign exchange commission was previously included in the transaction amount. It is now displayed separately on the transaction history screen.

Is it just that the OP is not used to seeing it listed separately?

jor el

KC JONES wrote: »

Why should they keep funds that they make impossible to spend/transfer. If someone pays 20 euro for a 3v why should 3v be allowed to keep some of it? They are a joke and a rip off

They don't make it impossible to spend all of it. All the money is there for you to spend, all you need to do is find something that is priced at the exact amount (or multiple items that add up to) you have on the voucher. It's not their fault if you don't. They can also apply a fee for fund transfer, as this does take resource on their side. Sure the fees are high, but it's not like you don't know about them.

Not happy with the fees, don't use 3V. No one is forced to use it, nor are you forced to leave money on an expiring voucher.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Amalgam wrote: »

The following was in an email sent by 3V today:



Is it just that the OP is not used to seeing it listed separately?

I'd say so. I was confused before as to how the € amount taken from the card seemed to be a bit wonky and that's cause they included this commission charge in the one transaction. Now they're listed separately

jor el wrote: »

They don't make it impossible to spend all of it. All the money is there for you to spend, all you need to do is find something that is priced at the exact amount (or multiple items that add up to) you have on the voucher. It's not their fault if you don't. They can also apply a fee for fund transfer, as this does take resource on their side. Sure the fees are high, but it's not like you don't know about them.

Not happy with the fees, don't use 3V. No one is forced to use it, nor are you forced to leave money on an expiring voucher.

Ah come on that's not quite the full story. Even if you find something priced at the exact amount so you can use up the last few quid, you're charged these feckin' pre-auth transactions which take ages for the refund to show up.


There isn't really much alternative aside from the Mastercard which has an insanely confusing and complicated system of fees. Other than that it's a "real" credit card cause there's feck all Laser acceptance outside Ireland. So there is no other "competitor" or whatever that has a pre-pay credit card with the one-off price 3V charge.

KC JONES

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Ah come on that's not quite the full story. Even if you find something priced at the exact amount so you can use up the last few quid, you're charged these feckin' pre-auth transactions which take ages for the refund to show up.


There isn't really much alternative aside from the Mastercard which has an insanely confusing and complicated system of fees. Other than that it's a "real" credit card cause there's feck all Laser acceptance outside Ireland. So there is no other "competitor" or whatever that has a pre-pay credit card with the one-off price 3V charge.

+1 you also have to allow for fx which no one knows how much it is. If someone has a small amount left there may not be anything at that price

LifeAndFate

If you don't want to have tiny amounts left on a Voucher that you can't spend after you've finished using it, buy a bigger Voucher. It's easier to spend €12.34 than it is to spend €2.34.

€20 Vouchers have no surcharge, €30 to €100 have €2.50 and €110+ cost €5 so you're not going to pay extra charges if you buy a €60 instead of a €50 Voucher for instance.

On the pre-auth transaction, just email 3V to ask them to reverse the transactions. It means you wont have to wait days to free up the funds tied up by the pre-auths.

jor el

KC JONES wrote: »

+1 you also have to allow for fx which no one knows how much it is. If someone has a small amount left there may not be anything at that price

Pre-auth only applies in some cases, and exchange rates only apply to non-euro transactions. Either way, none of that is 3V's problem, and it's not up to them to make sure you spend all the money on the voucher, it's up to you.

They don't make anything impossible. The service is what it is, and you either understand and accept it, or don't use it.

Vincent Vega

I wonder if 3v would be interested in introducing some alternative way to subtract the FX commission.

Lets say this....
they offer us the ability to transfer any remaining funds under €2.50, free of charge, into a seperate area of our accounts, which they could dip into in order to pay the FX fees.

This would mean we would only have to worry about the price of the goods we were buying.
Of course, on our statements they would still tell us that it had been subtracted (since it is EU policy to inform us), but that instead that it had been subtracted from the 'FX fund' or whatever, and not our voucher balance.

Would this be feasible in your opinion?
Thoughts?

Red Sleeping Beauty

KC JONES wrote: »

+1 you also have to allow for fx which no one knows how much it is. If someone has a small amount left there may not be anything at that price

The FX Commission charge is 1.75% of the transaction.
https://www.3v.ie/help.html

Most fancy calculators let you add a percentage to a number.

KC JONES

Alan Rouge wrote: »

The FX Commission charge is 1.75% of the transaction.
https://www.3v.ie/help.html

Most fancy calculators let you add a percentage to a number.

The commission cost is dependent on the day it is deducted and no one knows that according to 3v

bof

For those small amounts that you cant redeem :cool:


http://www.goalireland.com/donations/request1.php

Red Sleeping Beauty

KC JONES wrote: »

The commission cost is dependent on the day it is deducted and no one knows that according to 3v

I think it's the conversion that is on the day and then it's the 1.75% that's added on to the Euro amount I'd assume. On some DVD retail websites that have a separate Euro pricing to their sterling price, the conversion is always backward and a few years old so you get a bit ripped off! I suppose it'd be great if 3V and Visa stuck to the Xe.com conversion but the Visa one is always a little bit out. I think the commission should be absorbed by 3V though. They could offset it with all them unused 2euros they have lying around!!

KC JONES

Alan Rouge wrote: »

I think it's the conversion that is on the day and then it's the 1.75% that's added on to the Euro amount I'd assume. On some DVD retail websites that have a separate Euro pricing to their sterling price, the conversion is always backward and a few years old so you get a bit ripped off! I suppose it'd be great if 3V and Visa stuck to the Xe.com conversion but the Visa one is always a little bit out. I think the commission should be absorbed by 3V though. They could offset it with all them unused 2euros they have lying around!!

Yes you are right. 3 v say they do not know when the comm will be taken hence do not know conversion rate.

What I do now is find something as close as poss to the amount left. It makes choice a bit smaller and takes a bit of time but i only leave them a few cent now. I would not leave a couple of euro on principle. The few cent I consider a reasonable fee for the use/convenience of the 3v

stevejcraven

bof wrote: »

For those small amounts that you cant redeem :cool:


http://www.goalireland.com/donations/request1.php

Sorry for bumping an old thread but thanks for this. Finally, a way to get rid of those small balances that I have left on my vouchers that I didn't want 3v getting.

I would recommend this to anyone looking to use up those small balances that aren't worth redeeming as there are no pre-auth or fx commissions. Just enter your details with the amount you want transferred (your balance) and Bob's your uncle.

JP Liz V1

Is this FX Commission charged on all paypal transactions?

jor el

Commission applies to any currency exchange with a credit card. It has nothing to do with Paypal.

Since this thread is 2 years old, and seems to have little to do with the question asked, I'm closing it.